crepusculars asked: I disagree with what you said about GTA. The makers of the game are probably not explicitly encouraging anyone to do any of that stuff, but by putting it in the game, they are contributing to a culture that normalizes violence against women. While violent video games do not necessarily *cause* violence, studies show that they do desensitize people to violence, thereby making them more complacent and tolerant of it.
[TW: Rape, Sexual Assault]
They may not explicitly encourage anyone to do those things, but it does provide insight into what the game-makers think is acceptable to put into a game. If it wasn’t socially acceptable, would they even think to put it in the game? To me, it says that women, especially women who are prostitutes, are so undervalued in society that killing and raping women is an option — even in a video game. Nevermind the fact that 1 in 4 women will experience some form of sexual violence during their lifetime (correct me if this statistic is wrong). Part of the problem is that women are taught to avoid behaviors that could possibly get them assaulted or raped, but men are not taught to not rape women. In this misogynistic society, much of the violence that occurs against women is already normalized. Most men who rape women do not get prosecuted. Women, who are prostitutes, that get raped by clients or other men rarely report these rapes because society doesn’t care when a prostitute is raped, and they fear that no one will believe them because that is the “nature of their job”. So making this acceptable in a video game is a reflection of a society that thinks prostitutes are not worthy of the same rights and protections that other people are entitled to. It desensitizes us to violence against women.
Anyway, this is just how I feel. I don’t know enough about gaming to write more about it.
Also, this was a rather long way of both agreeing and disagreeing with you.
